Veronica And Other Friends eBook

Such remarks as these, thrown out before all the company
at the Rehbock were very exasperating to Blasi and
several times he seized the big bowl to throw it at
the insolent fellow’s head. He did not throw
it however, for Veronica had charged him to have as
little as possible to do with Jost, and especially
never to quarrel with him, and Veronica’s influence
over Blasi grew stronger every day. So he did
not throw the bowl, but instead, drained it to the
bottom and then left the room.

About this time Blasi began to meet Judith very often
on his evening walk. Judith seemed to have some
business that took her frequently to Fohrensee.
Strange surmises were aroused, among the Fohrensee
people; for it was known that she went to visit the
cattle-dealer. The two were often seen standing
before his house in the open street, gesticulating
vehemently with hands and arms. The people about
said,

“Something’s in the wind. They’re
going to be married. To be sure she is cleverer
than he, but then he is twenty-five years younger,
and that counts for something.”

One evening in January, Judith met Blasi as he was
coming round the corner of Gertrude’s house,
where he was always at work till it was time to go
for Veronica.

“What makes you go about laughing all the time,
and looking as if you had been winning a game?”
asked Judith.

“That’s exactly what I was going to ask
you,” retorted Blasi, “What have you got
to laugh about?”

“Answer me, and I’ll answer you, my lad.”

“All right; it’s nothing to be ashamed
of. She’ll have me.”

“Good heavens!” exclaimed Judith “Who?
Which one?”

Blasi did not turn round, but pointed with his thumb
over his shoulder at the house he had just left.
“That one,” he said.

Judith shouted with laughter.

“Will she have you all three?” she said;
“first Dietrich, then Jost, and now you.”

“I don’t see the joke,” said Blasi
crossly. “Dietrich has run away; she avoids
Jost as if he were a nettle, and who else is there?
Who is there for her to call upon if she wants help,
hey?”

Judith was still snickering over the news.

“Now it’s your turn,” said Blasi,
“tell me what it is that you’re so pleased
about.”

“It is very much like yours, Blasi; come a little
nearer,” and she whispered in his ear, “I
have him.”

“Mercy on us!” cried Blasi. “You
will be as rich as a Jew, for the cattle-dealer is
worth more than half the people in Fohrensee, all put
together.”

“I’m not talking about the cattle-dealer.”

“Pshaw! whom are you talking about then?”

“Somebody else, and I have him in such a fashion
that he will not forget it in a hurry, I tell you!”

As she spoke, Judith made a gesture with her hands
as if she were choking some one, who certainly would
not escape alive from her clutches.

Blasi shook his head and walked on in silence.
But in his inmost mind he thought, “I can’t
make anything out of her; her head is all in a buzz.
But she’s only a woman.”